System Center Configuration Manager Feedback

Ideas

What features would you like to see?

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Please create a setting (perhaps hierarchy or site) that allows an administrator to define the default content priority by content type. The current system default of Medium is not always appropriate and making this configurable could be a big help. The setting for this is already contained in WMI for most content types so creating a configurable setting in the console should be relatively trivial.

At the moment when setting up a schedule for Distribution Points to do their syncing the timezone being used is the one from the primary site server.

when having DP's over multiple continents this brings some advanced math to get the sync done right :p

Would there be a possibility to use "Use DP local Time" as with advertisements ?
Or maybe in the schedule tab on the DP properties have a dropdown list with for example "you are now scheduling in GMT+1" where you can select a list of timezones so it does the calculations for you.

Content Replication from Site to DPs should be a frustration free Process or SCCM Admins. Unfortunately, I know no customer without smaller or bigger issues in this area.
Here is an uncomplete list of some issues I´ve noticed:
• Content Eval - Scheduled Task lost
o SCCM does not check if the schedule task got lost/deleted
o Suggested Solution: SCCM should verify the Scheduled Task on Service Startup
• Content Eval - Hash mismatch/Eval fails for package
o When content Eval fails for a package, the admin must manually redistribute it / take care of the error
o There should be an option in SCCM to automatically fix packages where Content Eval fails
• Content Eval - Immediately validate content after distribution
o When an invalid package gets send to a DP, it can happen that it goes into the state "Successfully distributed content"
o However, to content is invalid. If you run a content validation immediately will go to "Could not validate…"
o Makes troubleshooting much harder, as you must verify every package before it is "really" OK
o Suggested Solution: Immediately validate content after distribution
• Content Eval - Failed to retrieve the package list on the DP
o If DP has this error, it never gets fixed automatically
o If WMI Entry is missing and .INI file is there, smsdpmon.log does not tell which package is affected
o Content Eval Task does just use package list in local WMI (SMS_PackagesInContLib), but it should verify all packages assigned to it.
o WMI/INI fix script (eg: here, but many scripts like this exist on the internet) can fix the error, but will cause other issues.
o Suggested Solution: When Content Eval runs, the DP should download a list of Packages to verify (PkgServers Table?)

• Database - PkgServers, ContentDPMap and PkgStatus not in Sync
o Content is distributed and verified successfully to DPs
o Content is not written correctly to ContentDPMap Table (can happen if status message gets lost)
o PullDPs and Clients can´t download the Package
o Workaround: Redistribute affected Package
o Suggested Solution: If Content is OK on a DP, the ContentDPMap+PkgStatus should reflect this => When Package is successfully validated on a DP, all needed Tables should get checked/updated

Content Replication from Site to DPs should be a frustration free Process or SCCM Admins. Unfortunately, I know no customer without smaller or bigger issues in this area.
Here is an uncomplete list of some issues I´ve noticed:
• Content Eval - Scheduled Task lost
o SCCM does not check if the schedule task got lost/deleted
o Suggested Solution: SCCM should verify the Scheduled Task on Service Startup
• Content Eval - Hash mismatch/Eval fails for package
o When content Eval fails for a package, the admin must manually redistribute it / take care of the error
o There should…

when we want to schedule an update for a package, if you enter a previous date than the current one (due to an error) you don't receive an advertisement message telling you that date is anterior. If you click OK, then package is update immediately!

Currently the smsdpusage process does not honour the DPs preferred Management Points for the submission of the usage report. Instead, it appears to pick the last MP listed in the following registry location, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\DP\ManagementPoints. In some cases this MP may not be reachable and as a result no DP usage reports are submitted to SCCM.

Today, when you remove an object from ConfigMgr (Package, application, etc), the content remains in the local client cache (if it was ever downloaded). In an effort to clean up that old content, I think it would be a great idea to automatically cleanup content. For example, once I delete an image from the admin console, I will never need it again on my client systems, so go ahead and delete it from any system that has it in the cache.

Currently it appears that when the SCCM agent in the WinPE boot image connects to a Management Point, it selects one without using the Boundary Group rules, instead selecting one from the AD published list, starting with the first alphabetically.
Instead this should behave like the full blown Windows SCCM Client and select a Management Point based on Boundary Groups such as IP range.
It is worth noting that Distribution Points are selected correctly according to Boundary Group by the WinPE client, for OSD content.

Allow administrators to configure Peer Cache clients with a list of DNS Search Suffixes, or for it to reference the local machines.

Currently I'm unable to use Peer Cache because client attempt to reach fellow clients via the FQDN which for xyz reason is unreachable. If it simply followed the DNS Search Suffix list, it would be able to contact them.

So as to minimize business impact during critical hours of the day where WAN impact can have significant outcomes. By being able to schedule when content distribution will start can greatly assist in this regard

When updating content, don't automatically remove the old content on the DP's until the copy starts. Sometimes what happens is if there is a slow content transfer already taking place. The new content update waits for it to complete before it starts the transfer, so during that time the old content is not available (causing task sequences, packages, and applications that use the content to fail).

When selecting a content location it would be nice to be able to add a list of folders (and possibly files) to exclude from the content. e.g. we often include an installation wrapper script in the content that drives the installation or removal process for applications / packages it would be nice to include them in a small git repository in situ. While we can do this now ConfigMgr copies the repo as part of the content. It would be nice to be able to exclude it from content replication / delivery / caching.

Currently there is no centralized way within ConfigMgr to determine if the expected desire of boundaries for content / site assignment works as expected. As boundaries can be configured in multiple ways (subnet, ad, range etc) and also allows to fallback between different servers - it would be good to allow insight into what clients from what networks are connecting to a DP to retrieve content. This would allow if the current design works as expected.

A liveflow of this would of course be great but a daily update would also provide valueable information (like the general DP summary tables)

Currently there is no centralized way within ConfigMgr to determine if the expected desire of boundaries for content / site assignment works as expected. As boundaries can be configured in multiple ways (subnet, ad, range etc) and also allows to fallback between different servers - it would be good to allow insight into what clients from what networks are connecting to a DP to retrieve content. This would allow if the current design works as expected.

Totally agree. Having realtime visibility into what boundaries clients are in RIGHTNOW, and thus which DPs (and peer clients) they will use is critical. We’ve been talking about this internally for awhile. There are innovations on our roadmap in this area.

Remove the extra steps to create a collection of one or more existing machines to deploy a program or application or task sequence to.

When needing to do a small targeted and IMMEDIATE deployment the admin should be able to right click and pick what to deploy and when he hits ok an adhoc collection should automatically be created into a default folder, say call it "Adhoc Collections" which without any keystrokes, mouse clicks or mouse swipes would be created in that folder with a name starting with the date in format YearMonthDay-Hour:Minute:Second-(Package | App Name | Task sequence|)-CreatorName
The collections in this folder should optionally automatically delete after a admin selected number of days.

Optionally Items in the collection at time of deployment would automatically receive notification to policy update and deploy if on line and if not receive immediately after coming on line.

If you want an example of a product that already does this look at PDQDeploy Free, the poor mans SCCM.

The SCCM Admin has the need to deploy as quickly as possible to small groups of machines or users when things don't go as planned,

Remove the extra steps to create a collection of one or more existing machines to deploy a program or application or task sequence to.

When needing to do a small targeted and IMMEDIATE deployment the admin should be able to right click and pick what to deploy and when he hits ok an adhoc collection should automatically be created into a default folder, say call it "Adhoc Collections" which without any keystrokes, mouse clicks or mouse swipes would be created in that folder with a name starting with the date in format YearMonthDay-Hour:Minute:Second-(Package | App Name | Task sequence|)-CreatorName
The…